The Ducks 
Anas ooschas . 
of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 
by Herbert K.Job. 
Auk, Xlll, July, 1896, pp.197-204. 
Gee under Anas obscura . 
Notes from Springfield, Mass.— Anas platyrhynchos. — Sixteen 
years ago about a dozen Mallard Ducks were placed in Forest Park, a 
public reservation in Springfield, bordering on the Connecticut river, con¬ 
sisting of about four hundred and sixty acres of land, and containing a 
number of small ponds and streams. For the first few years after their 
introduction into the park, these Mallards were kept in confinement for a 
portion of the time, and wandered at pleasure only when their wings were 
clipped, but during later years they or their descendants have been free to go 
and come as they pleased, with unclipped wings. Many of these ducks 
have bred in the park, and others have disappeared in the spring and re¬ 
appeared in the autumn in increasing numbers. Last winter, at one time, 
the park contained between sixty and seventy of these ducks. This year 
and last several nests of Mallards have been found in the vicinity of Spring- 
field, but a number of miles from the park. In former years this species 
of duck was not known to breed in Massachusetts, although it was a regular 
migrant in the western part of the state, appearing in spring and autumn on 
the waters of the Connecticut river and its tributaries in more or less num¬ 
bers. 
Florida cserulea. — On the twenty-second day of July, of the present 
year, a Little Blue Heron, in its white plumage was captured in West 
Springfield. 
